9000 miles behind the stern. Day 149

Fedor via the satphone: “I’m staying on course. The weather is stable. The wind is 10-15 knots. The waves are 1 meter tall from the south-east. There are 350 nautical miles until Australia. As of today, Tourgoyak and I have covered 9000 nautical miles (16200 km). I don’t like getting ahead of myself, but I must say that my team and I have correctly estimated the duration of my route across the Pacific. I have plenty of food left to last me at least 50-60 more days. I used up only half of the propane fuel containers for my cooking stove. We also packed three stoves, but  I am using only the first one; the other two have been resting unpacked the entire time. Basically, there is enough means to row back to Chile. For the first time, without any hesitation I decided to use the emergency water reserve. The bottles of mineral water from Chile have been serving as a ballast for the last 150 days. It’s a bit odd to drink frizzy water in the ocean. If for some reason the water pump decides to stop working, I have enough water bottles to last me 15 days. I must comment on how well the Schenker 30 water desalination pump has performed the entire crossing. I’d get 30 liters of fresh water per hour  every time I turn the machine on; just like the manual said it would.  I’m thankful that the majority of my equipment and gadgets are working just fine, and my boat is in good condition.

I saw a few frigatebirds today. I know that these birds don’t spend the night on the ocean, but fly back to a land. It’s great to see these guys for they remind me how close I am to land. All I can think about is my landing on terra firma. I’m working on the oars for the majority of the 24 hour day. There is fish frolicking around and under the boat, but I am not going to distract myself with the fishing business. Since the weather is favorable I am using every moment of it to advance as far west as possible. I’m with you. Fedor.”

The map of the Tourgoyak’s course: http://yb.tl/konyukhov2

The detailed map of the course: www.oceanrowing.com/Konyukhov/Pacific2013/dist_map.htm

Translated by Tatiana Koreski